Sydney Peace Prize

Some people might think that the Sydney Peace Prize is a pretentiously wanky imitation of the Nobel Peace Prize, with a small clique of cultural elites arbiting moral standards. However, most people - in fact probably everybody on the planet outside Australia - have never heard of the Sydney Peace Prize.

The Sydney Peace Foundation is an NGO run through the University of Sydney, funded through donations and sponsorship (including from Kerry Packer's PBL media conglomerate, and Sydney ratepayers). It acts as a partnership between ' corporate, media, public service, community groups and academic communities'. Aside from determining who wins the annual Sydney Peace Prize, the foundation provides training packages, launches peace initatives, funds scholarships, and even runs corporate courses in removing conflict in the workplace (Practicing peace and justice in the workplace provides companies with a competitive edge through a happier and healthier workforce and a significant increase in productivity.)

More famously, since 1998 the Sydney Peace Foundation has been awarding the Sydney Peace Prize. The prize can be awarded to an individual or organisation:

who has made significant contributions to global peace including improvements in personal security and steps towards eradicating poverty, and other forms of structural violence;

whose role and responsibilities enable the recipient to use the prize to further the cause of peace with justice;